PORTFOLIO TASK_Step by Step

Step 3_ANALYSIS OF THE THEMATIC UNIT

Task

Choose one thematic unit of your approval subject and one year and map its position in the FEP BE and also in the SEP of the given school. 

Plan your instruction of the chosen thematic unit (1 lesson). Please find chapters to support your knowledge in study materials - see the Study Guide section.


(1) First, carry out a Didactic Analysis of the Curriculum (DAC) from the selected thematic unit.

What is DAC?

In order for teachers to be able to transform the curriculum into a form comprehensible for pupils, they must first understand the curriculum in depth themselves, the goals, the structures of the curriculum and the relationships within it (Skalková, 2007).

They ask themselves questions such as: What knowledge (definitions, data, rules, realities, etc.) should the student acquire in the given topic in order to acquire a certain level of knowledge? What activities must be included in the lesson, so that the pupil achieves certain desirable skills in the intellectual, motor or psychomotor area by performing them repeatedly? What logical operations and cognitive processes teach the student to think and look for solutions and procedures in the new curriculum? What educational moments does the topic offer? etc.

Conceptual DAC - analysis of key concepts in the topic and the relationships between them. The tool can be a concept map or an analysis of the structure of the curriculum in three categories - facts, concepts and generalizations. Everything is explained in detail in the publication Pasch et al. (1998, ch. 2.2).

FACTS are information about individual facts, they capture phenomena by describing the form, number, position, place, time, etc. Facts represent an ambition to describe reality as objectively as possible.

Ex. Tidal phenomena include ebb and flow, which we can observe at the sea as a regular rise and fall of its level. The tides are caused by the gravitational effect of the Moon (and to a lesser extent the Sun) on seawater.

CONCEPTS are categories or classes of things or ideas with the most important properties in common; it is a generalization of partial facts; they can be concrete or abstract.

Ex. gravity, tides, tides

GENERALIZATIONS are statements that express relationships between two or more concepts, it can be, for example, laws, principles or theories.

Ex. The gravitational attraction between two bodies weakens as their distance increases.

Operational DAC - activities (operations, activities) of pupils in the lesson, which lead to the achievement of the learning objectives. Each activity is prompted by well-thought-out learning tasks. Learning tasks are all tasks assigned by the teacher, respecting the learning goal: a) tasks, b) questions, c) application tasks. 


(2)   Based on the DAC, formulate sub-goals of the lesson.

How to set and formulate goals.

When teaching various subjects, we fulfill the learning objectives. The goals should be formulated in such a way that they are appropriate for the age and capabilities of the pupils; consistent (i.e. lower goals lead to the achievement of higher goals); unequivocal (do not allow for other interpretations) and, above all, controllable (i.e. expressed as observable activity of pupils - ideally use active verbs, see Bloom's taxonomy of objectives). Learning tasks are used to fulfill the goals.

The learning objectives subsequently serve as a starting point for the creation of evaluation criteria.

 We must not forget the goals of education, which are interwoven throughout the entire educational process. Look at the feP and describe the continuity with the curriculum - key competences, expected outcomes from the FEP BE, cross-cutting topics, inter-subject relationships. List only those competences, outcomes and inter-subject relationships that you will actually develop in the planned lessons. The development of competences, expected outputs and inter-subject relationships must be clearly evident from the planned teaching activities and subsequently also from the assessment.

Goals can be set in the area of:

Cognitive (intellectual) - the result is certain knowledge and skills (E.g. objective: The pupil/other will explain the connection between the disintegration of Austria-Hungary and the creation of Czechoslovakia. The resulting knowledge of the pupil/other: Czechoslovakia was created at the end of the First World War as one of the successor states Austria-Hungary.)

Psychomotor - the result is psychomotor skills related to sensory perception, movements and mutual coordination of perceptions with movements (For example, goal: The student works with a microscope. The resulting skill of the student: The student puts the specimen into the microscope and focuses the microscope correctly.)

Affective (attitudinal, educational) - the result is interests, attention, development of aesthetic sense, moral attitudes, feelings, opinions and values (E.g. goal: The student/other argues why we recycle waste. The resulting attitude of the student/other: The student/other realizes the importance of protecting nature and sorting and recycling waste himself/herself.)

Social - communication, cooperation (E.g. goal: Pupils in a group create a poster for a school play. Resulting ability of the pupil: The pupil is able to work in a team. The pupil agrees with classmates on the division of tasks.


(3)   In accordance with the competences, expected outcomes and set goals, propose activities (teaching tasks) that you would use in the given lesson to achieve the set goals.

How to create an effective learning task?

Based on the learning goal, we formulate learning tasks that will fulfill this goal. Principles that help create effective learning tasks include:

1. We create learning tasks with regard to the specific needs of the student, learning styles, interests, types of intelligence (Gardner).

2. Themes of tasks from real life - "here and now", "being there" (use the experience of students, updates, motivation).

3. Using an active verb (expressing an observable activity) always at the beginning of a sentence - thus creating an imperative sentence as an incentive for action, not just for a simple answer.

4. Instructions in the task expressed precisely in terms of quality and quantity (avoid the words some, several,...).

5. Formulation of tasks - exciting, provoking, tempting challenge.

6. Focus on key curriculum.

7. Use of different levels of difficulty (knowledge - understanding - application - analysis - evaluation - creativity). See Bloom's Taxonomy of Goals.

8. Tasks for individual and group work.

Which of the following tasks do you think fulfill these principles? Identify deficiencies in task assignments that reduce their effectiveness:

Come up with your own tour, prepare an explanation for several monuments.

Define what is included in the chronological preparation of the guide. In pairs, draw up an itinerary for a one-day sightseeing tour. Calculate the costing of this trip (work independently, then compare the resulting costing with a classmate). Act out a skit from the tour in which you present an explanation of two monuments in the given locality (take turns in the role of guide).

In the textbook on page 15, read the chapter "Itinerary of the trip", write notes in the notebook. As a group, talk about when and where you were last on a trip.


(4)   Define teaching strategies.

What are teaching strategies?

Teaching strategies are well-thought-out methods of teaching that are optimal in a specific class, for a specific teacher and a specific subject (topic, subject), and which the teacher chooses in order to achieve the set learning goals with the students in a favorable and supportive climate. The teacher must adequately combine methods, forms, means and teaching conditions. Everything is explained in detail in the publication Pasch et al. (1998, chs. 5 and 6).

The basic strategies are:

inductive (problematic, authentic learning) - typical for the constructivist concept of teaching, knowledge is built "from the inside" (from preconceptions), develops children's metacognitive abilities;

scheme of inductive teaching: 1. problem (research, investigation, search for solutions), 2. discovery of the meaning of a concept or theory, 3. application and verification in authentic situations, 4. evaluation of results and procedures;

deductive - typical for a transmissive school, the teacher has everything under control and the teaching has a clear goal and purpose;

scheme of deductive teaching: 1. interpretation (explanation, ready knowledge), 2. guided practice, 3. application in tasks, 4. verification of knowledge;

socially mediated - students learn together and from each other, e.g. cooperative learning, simulations, role playing.


(5)  Choose appropriate teaching methods.

What are teaching methods?

This is a purposeful and deliberate procedure by which the teacher regulates the learning of pupils during classes. The teaching method can be likened to a path, where each step takes the form of intentional activity by the teacher and the student, and leads to the learning goal.

Teachers have an abundance of teaching methods at their disposal. Since the teaching methods must be directly linked to the set goals, we refer to "methodical manuals" (including foreign ones) when choosing suitable methods, which are recommended by the specialist didactics at the specialist departments.


(6) State methods of evaluation/assessment by which you will verify the fulfillment of learning objectives.

Assessment

Do we want to provide the student with information about what activities need to be improved through the assessment? Motivate them to learn more? Lead them to self-reflection? Will we include the assessment continuously in the entire teaching process or at the end of it? Do we want to evaluate the learning process or the resulting product, e.g. presentation, etc.? Do we have exact criteria set for evaluation (and the student knows them in advance) or do we rely on our own intuition? What will the student take away from the so-called "sticker evaluation"? These are just a few of the many questions teachers should ask themselves when thinking about assessment. Everything is explained in detail in the publication Pasch et al. (1998, ch. 3.1).

Effective evaluation results in:

  • the student is not afraid to make a mistake, to draw attention to his own mistake and has the opportunity to understand and use it in learning,
  • the pupil recognizes whether he/she has achieved the lesson's objective, has specific information about the course of his/her learning, knows and understands the criteria,
  • the pupil has the opportunity to reflect on his/her procedures and results,
  • a student has more sources and types of feedback than grades.

When evaluating the student's results, we respect the requirements for:

  • appropriate form of content,
  • scope and depth of content, processing (solving) learning tasks,
  • the use of diverse resources or learning materials, corresponding to the interests, motivation, level of development of the pupil,
  • provision of varying lengths of time (not only for testing but also for the process of acquiring knowledge and skills).

Think about what are the positives and negatives of formative assessment compared to summative assessment? In which phases of teaching would you place each type of assessment?

Formative assessment

feedback should be about the partial qualities of the student's work + advice, recommendations for improvement,

ongoing, corrective, feedback, working; the teacher continuously reflects on the student's learning and contributes to their self-development,

brings useful information about the current state of knowledge and skills of the student. Useful means that the student will know what makes the work satisfactory or less satisfactory.

Summative assessment

the process of obtaining records, evidence and determining their value (abroad evaluation),

teachers check what the pupil has learned on the given date, how successful he/she is, what result he/she has achieved in relation to the standard; the result is often summarized by points, grades, letters, symbols, final overall overview of achieved performance – quarterly, semi-annually, at the end of the year, for admissions...


Předchozí
Následující
Operace
Prohlédnout vše